Women's Basketball

Women's Basketball Earns Thrilling 65-52 Win over Maine Black Bears

Orono, ME -
Led by Sadiea Williams' (Lunenburg, MA) career-high 16 points, the Brown women's basketball team (1-4) earned its first win of the 2008-09 season with a thrilling 65-52 victory over the University of Maine Black Bears (1-3) on Friday evening during the Dead River Company Classic. Also scoring in double-digits was sophomore guard Karly Grace (Camp Hill, PA) with 13 and sophomore guard Courtney Lee (Archer, FL) with 12. Brown will now play West Virginia (4-1) in the championship game tomorrow at 4:00 p.m.

The Brown Bears played stellar in the first 20 minutes of play, executing on both the offensive and defensive end. The Bears shot 45 percent from the field and out-rebounded Maine 19-14 to head into halftime with a 31-20 lead. Bruno gained its lead at the 15 minute mark after Lee hit a jumper on the left side, and three pointer by Grace pushed it to 10-6.

Maine came out hot after a 30-second timeout, and regained the lead after forward Brittany Boser put in a lay-up at the 10:51 mark to put the score at 13-12. Williams went to work on the Black Bears and scored six points, and junior guard Christina Johnson (Oakland, CA) added five to help push Bruno's lead back to 25-19 with 1:24 left in the half. With just under 10 seconds on the clock, Brown pushed the ball up to Lee who drained a long jump shot in the last second to extend Brown's lead to 30-21 to head into halftime.

Turnovers and fouls enabled the Black Bears to decrease their deficit to five after the first three minutes of the second half. Brown picked up eight fouls in the first five minutes of play, and the Black Bears took advantage. Samantha Baranowski drained five of seven free-throws and sunk two jumpers to help bring Maine within one with 10:20 remaining.

The Bears stayed composed and stuck to Head Coach Jean Marie Burr's game plan, as Williams pushed Brown's lead back to 46-40 with a shot from beyond the arc at the 7:46 mark. Next, a jumper by Grace and a three-point play by Natalie Bonds in the paint gave Brown a 51-43 lead with 4:01 left on the clock. Brown's free-throw shooting at the end of the game was clutch, as the squad was able to clinch the victory, 65-52.

The Bears shot 47 percent from the field and out-rebounded Maine 37-33. Williams and Lee both led the team in rebounds with seven each, and freshman Hannah Passafuime (Soquel, CA) pulled down six boards. Leading Maine was Baranowski with 15 points and five rebounds, and Samantha Wheeler with 12 points and five boards.